Design Concept

original sketch to establish proportions

The design for this quilt is based on the orderly progressions of scale, observed in nature by thirteenth century mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. A series of circles represent the centering of the mind and spirit that occurs in a garden. The circles are graduated in both size and color, and arc across the surface of the lattice in a diagonal compound curve.

To design this quilt I made a detailed line drawing in Corel Draw using long rectangles in the Fibonacci progression (1-2-3-5-8-etc.).  After I had finalized the line drawing I began filling it with progressions of color and value.  I also filled part of the grid with a photograph (bitmap) of one of my painted fabrics to be sure the idea would work.  I tried many different combinations of color (below), and eventually looked at all of my choices together on my screen.  I chose the one I liked the best as a guide for selecting the colors in the real quilt. Since the quilt needed to be exactly 36" x 48 " finished, I enlarged my line drawing to exactly those proportions on my computer screen, and printed out patterns to use in cutting my fabric strips. 

Many different colors of cotton and polyester top stitching thread were used for the quilting.

This quilt was made as a special commission for a private home in Deerfield, IL.